First impressions
by chibiness87
Summary: Blending in makes for easy observation. Greg POV of GSR. Spoilers through 8.08.


**First Impressions** by **chibiness87**  
**Genre:** Um… Reflection? (Is reflection a genre?!)  
**Pairing:** GSR (Greg POV)  
**Spoilers:** If it's on the show, it's fair game.  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine.  
**Summary:** Blending in makes for closer observation.

**A/N:** My first Greg POV fic… he's actually kind of fun to write. Not beta's, because I'm being lazy.

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People don't think much of me at first glance. Why would they? I'm not overly tall. Nor short. Not fat. And now I'm in the field I don't have crazy hair styles.

I used to be a lab rat. Had my own little domain, something even Grissom knew. Oh sure, the guy could terrify me, make me nervous and give me mildew reactions, but he was still a cool guy... someone you could rely on, you know?

He was there for me when the lab blew up on me. Gave me a second chance when I took a leak on my probation. Stand up guy.

And if it wasn't for the fact that he was sleeping with the woman I was in love with I'd be proud to call him a friend. Not a friend who'd come to the bar after a tough shift. Nor one you buy presents for. But if you needed him, he was there.

Now, you may be wondering how A) I knew Griss is sleeping with Sara, and B) why I never told anyone I knew. See, I've been known to be a bit of a gossip at the lab. It's not always true. And I've also been told I'm a little eccentric. They keep bringing up a certain dance down the halls of the lab with a certain queen of Las Vegas' headdress. But that was years ago. Not anymore.

So yeah. The Boss-man and Sara. You have to understand, I found out completely by accident. Really. I wasn't looking for them every time I left the house. Cos running into your boss outside of work is kinda creepy, you know?

So when I first saw him out at a diner, I turned round and started walking away before he could see me. And bumped right into Sara. Now, seeing Sara out is a much nicer view than seeing Grissom out. And the small shower Sara and I had to, _HAD TO_, take together a couple of years ago was just a bonus. Of course I didn't look. I am a gentleman. Well, I can be. Swear down I didn't look. (Ok, there may have been a little part of me that wanted to, but that was squashed by the knowledge that Sara could kill me. With her pinkie.)

Of course then she told me she looked. I felt a bit cheated then. But now I'm glad I didn't look. Because it means Griss can't kill me for ogling his girl in the shower. Oh, who am I kidding? He could kill me too. And they could both make it look like an accident.

But I'm relying on the fact that Sara and I are really good friends to save my ass a little. I mean, there's a chance (as long as I don't deserve it…) that finding out that her S.O killed little ol' me will make him be in the doghouse. And believe you me, if you can do anything to keep yourself out of the doghouse where Sara Sidle is concerned, you do it.

Whatever. I digress. Where was I? Oh yeah, the run in with Sara. That's right. Anyway, so I bumped into her, and we shot the breeze for a few minutes, made plans to catch a drink after shift that week, and carried on our merry ways. It wasn't until 2 days later with her holding my hand was I lay gasping for breath through the pain as I lay a bloody mess on the pavement it hit me she shouldn't have been there.

No, not my scene. Having her there was a breath of fresh air, really. No, I mean, she shouldn't have been at the diner in the first place. Because while it's fairly local to me, and just round the corner really for Grissom, it's across town for her. So yeah, laying there in a pool of my own blood I started thinking that there may be something going on with the angel holding my hand and the man signing my pay slips.

It wasn't long after that that Grissom left town for a month to teach a lecture series in Massachusetts. I was wondering if I was wrong about him and Sara then, right until he left and she became little miss depressed. She was always at the lab. Like, always. There after everyone else on grave signed out, and there before everyone on grave signed in.

Hell, sometimes I don't think she even went home. It was like when she first started at the lab. She was always there, then. Being lab-bound myself at the time, I noticed these things.

Course I also noticed she had a thing for Griss. And if she had turned around on more than one occasion as she walked away from the guy, she would have seen the longing on his face as he watched her go.

If it wasn't for him being my boss and being able to fire my ass for even thinking of talking to him about it, I may have said something. But well, there was the whole thing of liking my job.

I don't know exactly what happened for him to get over whatever bug was sitting between him and her, but looking back on it I can make a guess at when it happened.

Sara had been miserable. Seriously miserable. And Grissom really wasn't doing anything to help matters. If anything, he was making them worse. And then, after 4 years of always being at the lab and never taking any time for herself, she took some time off. I caught her talking to herself in a mirror on the first night she was back. Don't know what she was saying or why… but yeah. Odd.

But she was back, and wasn't always frowning, and sometimes there was even a hint of a smile. She looked after me that first year. I don't know if that was something she wanted or was saddled with it from Grissom, but working with her pretty much every night was fun, and she was getting better. Smiling a bit more and everything.

And then the shift got split, and it seemed within a couple of weeks all the good work of her working with me was gone. Personally, I think it may have been something to do with Sofia. It was obvious she was liking Grissom, and it was obvious to everyone with a Y chromosome that he wasn't interested. Not really. But apparently if you had 2 X chromosomes, you were blind to it.

Then she, Sara I mean, got suspended. Apparently she had blown up at Catherine after blowing up at a suspect… not something we all hadn't done before. But, well, none of us had done it in front of Ecklie. And had then gone on to explode at him too. I've gotta give the girl credit… she's the only one of us to ever do that.

And yes, she got suspended for it. But hell, I would gladly lose my career if it was because I told that slimy git faced prick what I thought of him.

Anyway, she came back, again, after that, and it seemed that whatever had happened worked for her, because she was smiling again. And Grissom seemed more relaxed after that time too. And I swear I saw them at a diner together not 2 weeks after that.

So yeah, it looked like the two had kissed and made up, and were back doing their geek-mind-meld thing once more. Of course, at the time I didn't know just how accurate the whole kiss and made up bit of that analogy probably was. And eeew. So didn't need to think of that. -shudder-

There were other clues during the next year, now I look back on it. But because none of us were looking for them, they went by unnoticed. Like that case we had about a month before Brass was shot. Mother of the groom showed up dead, and then all our evidence was stolen. Anyway, we were talking about weddings, and I swear Grissom and her were sharing some pretty significant looks, if you get what I mean.

Anyway, about 6 months later, he goes away for a month, and Sara was depressed. He comes back, and about a week later she's grinning again. And her OT disappears. So I figured there was definitely something going on. Of course, walking through the parking lot and seeing the two of them pressed up against the wall of the lab making out like their lives depended on it helped with that conclusion.

I just never expected Grissom, the guy who never ever gives away information about himself, to blurt it out to the rest of the team like that. Though, looking at his face, I don't think he even knew he said anything. He was completely absorbed by the miniature. Not that I can blame him hell, we were all in the same boat.

Personally, I want to know who took the pic of the two of them at the crime scene of the totalled car, looking all chummy. Because if they knew they were being observed like that from one of our guys, I know they wouldn't be standing like that, never mind being observed by Natalie. My guess is something happened there to show her what he had just told us.

Even hours later, when I was in the chopper looking for the car in the desert, I couldn't help hating him. Just a little. Because if they hadn't done whatever it was that tipped her off, she wouldn't have taken Sara. And this whole situation would never have happened.

When Grissom came into work 3 months after the 'incident' (as people had taken to calling it) had occurred, looking like someone had just ripped out his heart ad stomped all over it, I knew what he was going to say before he did.

Sara had left.

Everyone was rallying around him after that, trying to make him feel better. Not me. I had seen her slipping. And as much as I tried to be there for her, it wasn't me she needed. And, judging by the lack of Sara, I knew, _knew_, he hadn't done so. Or at least, not enough.

So while everyone else tried to make Grissom feel better, I ignored him. Not that anyone else noticed, of course. Well, he did. I could see it in his eyes that he knew I wasn't talking to him. And why. And he never called me on it, so in some way I guess he must have felt he deserved it.

I did eventually start speaking to him again. Just like that. One shift getting by on the bare minimum we had to in order to do our job, the next having actual conversation in the break room in front of others.

Because I had run into Grissom in the same diner I had the previous year, back when I first stated thinking something was going on. And he hadn't been alone. I gave him the smallest of head nods, before turning and leaving him and his wife to their meal.

And when everyone else gave shouts of surprise and glee when Sara Sidle-Grissom walked through the door, I sat back and smiled.

Yes, people often don't think much of me at first glance. But that's ok. It makes surprising them all that much sweeter.

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END 


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